Friday Morning Cliff Notes #1

The danger of both sides being willing to go over the edge, via “Morning Joe”:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: This is all about the President’s and John Boehner’s relationship. John Boehner, now, when he walks back to HC-5 and he has that meeting with a Republican caucus that he’s having to drag to the table to bring and generate new revenue, he now goes back and Boehner faces a very angry caucus. Tom Cole came out and said, “Hey, let’s go ahead and raise taxes.” That was remarkable. Eric Cantor, on this show, said, “We have to raise additional revenue.” Republicans have stepped forward and said that. If I were a sitting member of Congress right now, a guy on this show who has said for years that we have to make a deal, my response to John Boehner would be very simple: just stop talking to him. Don’t talk to him until they make a serious offer. Just don’t. This is, after all, a party that’s been running the U.S. Senate for years and they’ve never produced a budget. If they want to offer us something serious, great. If not, well, we’ll just sit back and wait. I got to say, I’m really stunned by what happened yesterday, Mark. Tell us why it happened the way it did.

MARK HALPERIN: It was the worst day since Election Day for optimists, like me, who thought we were headed towards a deal. I think you put your finger on the exact thing, which is anything that makes it harder for John Boehner to join arms with the President and make a deal is worse for the process. Now, look, Mitch McConnell, he has a very easy laugh. He’s a guy who likes to laugh so not surprising that he would laugh at the offer. But you’ve got Charles Krauthammer writing today, basically saying, “Hey, let’s go over the cliff and the President will take responsibility.” The biggest danger is now you’ve got people on both sides saying, “Hey, maybe going over the cliff isn’t so bad.” For the Democrats, because they think it gives them leverage on then having a different kind of tax vote than they’d have to have now because everyone’s taxes would go up and then you could vote to lower them on some. And for the Republicans, Krauthammer has, kind of, a canary in the coal mine on this, saying, “You know what? If we go over the cliff, yeah, Republicans will get some blame but the President will own it because the economy will get worse.” That dynamic is so dangerous right now and I think the President and Boehner should talk today, and I bet they do.